Cardi B’s AVN Awards Performance Captures Media’s Imagination

Cardi B, the 26-year-old former stripper, social media sensation, and reality TV star who has rocketed to hip hop superstardom over the past few years, made AVN Awards history on Saturday when she became the first woman to perform as a musical guest at the ceremony. And the national media took notice, with publications ranging from USA Today to People magazine splashing her name in headlines across their web sites in their coverage of the event.

“Cardi B is feeling herself!” People declared, headlining the rapper’s comment. “I’m a little pornstar today,” from an Instagram post akin at a pre-performance photo session, in which the rapper posed suggestively in an electric-blue lingerie outfit complete with dyed-blue hair.

TMZ declared that Cardi B “brings the house down” at the AVN Awards, adding, “She looked amazing and the crowd went wild during her short set.”

Rolling Stone chose to focus on the unprecedented nature of the performance, quoting Cardi B telling the AVN Awards crowd from the stage, “I’m so excited for these awards… more than the Grammys. I don’t know why.”

On February 10, Cardi B is scheduled to perform at the Grammy Awards, where her album Invasion of Privacy is an Album of the Year nominee.

USA Today also highlighted Cardi B’s “little pornstar today” quote—but also focused on a later photo posted on the pop star’s Instagram showing her cradling her six-month old daughter on board a private aircraft, with the infant swaddled in “a Versace snowsuit priced at a fittingly sky-high $830.”

Other publications took a different angle, however, with both Yahoo! News and the Melbourne, Australia Herald Sun choosing to go with, “Cardi B MOM SHAMED For Performing At AVN 2019 Adult Film Awards!”

The women’s magazine Cosmopolitan also covered the Cardi B appearance on the magazine’s site, paying special attention to “the AMAZING outfits that Cardi wore, including this blue get-up that includes a cape—a CAPE, people!”